New Recruit
by AgentNorthCarolina
Summary: What happens when Carolina is now South Carolina, so that a new recruit can join? Read on to find out...
1. Chapter 1

It was not good news ever to be called to the Director's office, especially on a Monday morning. It always meant that there was a KIA, a punishment, or you had to give a tour to a new recruit. Unfortunate for Carolina, she got sent to the Director's office this time. When she arrived, she was told to wait by FILISS. Once she was let into the office, it seemed to be nothing but bad news. "Carolina, as you know, each Freelancer is named after one of the 50 States" said the Director. "And as you are named Carolina, which takes two states. Too fix this you will be renamed South Carolina, effective immediately." Carolina started to groan in her mind, meaning that this will most likely have a new recruit with the name North Carolina. The Director continued on stating that a new recruit, named North Carolina as her suspicions confirmed. "He will be joining your squad, as a vehicle expert, and an extremely good one at that" continued the Director. "You will be his guide for when he arrives tomorrow morning. You will escort him to get his armor from the armory, take him to the med-bay for his physical examination, and then take him to his room, which he will be sharing will Agent New York."

Carolina approached the mess hall where the rest of her squad and friends were sitting, eating their breakfast and taking about what they thought had happened to Carolina when she was called to see the Director. When she got to the table, she calmly explained, "they changed my official name to South Carolina, and we have a new recruit showing up tomorrow morning." York laughed about it, thinking that the new recruit would be fun to have a hazing. "And York, the new guy will be your new roommate." Stated Carolina, which seemed to shut York up. The rest of the day went along as normal, with everyone starting rumors as why the new kid was recruited, some ranging from luck, to the possibility that he was tougher than any of them, even Texas. When the end of the rolled around, York tried to enjoy his last night of having his own room. He couldn't seem to, wondering what the new guy that would be in his room for the entire duration of Project Freelancer.

The morning rolled around, to no excitement from any Freelancer, except Texas, who was looking for a fight with the recruit on the training floor. Carolina woke up groggily, put on her armor, and shuffled to the landing bay, waiting for the recruit to land. When the Pelican finally did land, she expected to see a thirty-something year old built like a linebacker, but instead she saw kid that couldn't have been older than 21. He had short blonde hair with a tan and dark blue eyes. He did have some muscle on him, as if he played football. Carolina walked up to him as he was grabbing a duffel bag. "Hey, you're the new recruit right? I'm Carolina, and I was sent to take you on the tour" she says. "Yeah, I'm the new kid" says the kid. "Ok, I just need to need to know a few things first, such as your name" say Carolina. "I'm Conor Ryell" says the kid. "No I mean your new name" say Carolina. "Oh, yeah, I'm North Carolina, but just call me NC" responds Conor. "Alright NC, let's take you to get your armor" says Carolina.

Once they arrived at the Armory, NC got suited up in an armor set comprised of an EVA standard helmet with a Puma etched into the visor, and standard Defender class armor, with a steel coloring and dark blue highlights. "What's with the Puma?" asks Carolina. NC responds with a simple "It's a Panther." Once they had finished with the armor, they started to head down to the med-bay to get the physical when she started to ask about the reasoning behind the Panther and the color of his armor. "It comes from the American Football team, the Carolina Panthers, which was the logo and the colors of the team" replied NC. Carolina seemed to not really be interested in the conversation, just wanting to get the tour over with. NC had his physical, passed very well, with only some low electrolytes. Carolina took him to his room with York, where they arrived around 3. "Be in on the training floor in an hour" said Carolina, "you will be sparring with Tex, which is gonna be fun to watch."


	2. Chapter 2

"Alright Carolina, just give me 10 minutes to unpack, then I'll be downstairs to spar" said NC. York was still in the room when NC was unpacking when York started to interrogate him about his interests. NC sat down and answered all of the questions until York started to try to set him up with South Dakota, but during the tour he had overheard York talking about hazing him without even thinking about the fact that NC was even there. NC feed him the information that would be harmless to him, such as the fact that he listened to Eminem, even though the music was outdated by 2552. "So York, I've been here for about 6 hours, and I already know that you're trying to sleep with Carolina, and you're probably close" says NC "just try to remember to leave a sock on the door if you need some personal time." York looked horrorstruck that NC had already known about his secret. After that he decided that it would be better if he just took NC down to the sparring floor to have is introductions with the rest of his squad.

When they got to the floor, Wash and North tried to give him advice to stick with a weapon that he knew well, and just stick with that. South gave him advice that when he was on his ass crying, don't make it audible, as she said it would make Tex angrier. Maine just tried to hand him live ammunition and grenades, growling at him. He saw Texas walking down to the floor, only saying to watch his back. To everyone's surprise, NC just said in a surprised voice, "Ali? Is that you?" Everyone was worried that NC had just made her mad, but once again to their surprise, she responded with glee in her voice "CONOR FUCKING RYELL! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" NC responded by giving her a high five, and them talking about what had happened to each other in the 15 years that they hadn't seen each other. They made their way down to the floor, where they started the session with pistols with simulated rounds.

FILISS announced the start of the round for the session where to against all expectations, no one was killed for an entire 10 minutes, no one was hit. Texas had bit her tongue, regretting the fact that she had trained him as well as she had. Texas was 19 when she had me Conor at 4. She protected him from thugs and trained him using an Air-Soft pistol, to which he had become almost as good as she was, but she was still better than him. Using the Active Camouflage, she tricked him, but she still showed sympathy by shooting him in the knees. NC showed thanks for her mercy by not exploiting the fact that he knew her as well as she knew him. She knew him as a happy little 4 year old, while he knew her at 19, where she already matured and knew what she was going to know.

At the end of the session, the squad sat down in the mess hall where everyone pestered them to find out how they knew each other, while they told the story of them meeting at a police station in downtown Raleigh, after Texas had been found there after running away from home, and NC was there because it was right next to the park by his house. NC asked how Leonard was, as he was Texas' boyfriend that was back in Austin. She left to find somewhere else for a while before she left for the Marines. York was awe inspired by the kid that could hold his own against Texas, for longer than him, Wyoming, and Maine. After the meal, everyone had retired to their bunks for the night. NC went to sleep after 20 minutes of York asking him questions, and telling York that tomorrow, NC had to get up early to go practice flying in the Pelican for an upcoming mission.


End file.
